The Rehabilitation of an Ex-Teen-Death Eater
by Light on the Horizon
Summary: ...and the Epiphany of a Champion Against Discrimination. Draco can't find a job. Hermione is hiring. But of course, she'd never hire him. No one will, so he needs a plan.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Harry Potter and his world are JK Rowling's. Not mine, no money for me, this is just for enjoyment.

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Draco

Hermione Granger. How can anyone be so bloody perfect? Aside from the unfortunate issue of her blood, which even I now admit is of little consequence.

Top of the class, always a mark ahead of me. Actually more like ten marks ahead if you consider her average of 108 per cent. Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer marks given based on what's actually in the exam. The point is, she hasn't changed. Still the smartest witch of our generation, champion of the defenceless and ignored, firmly on the side of all that's light.

She's making a name for herself now. Started up a legal agency, charging the privileged and using the proceeds for worthy causes. I tried to apply for a job. I walked into her office, and she just stared for a moment.

She said, "Mr. Malfoy, I'm afraid we have no suitable vacancies available."

As was evident from the large flashing red 'VACANCIES' sign outside. Perhaps the Gryffindor colours there were more significant than I thought; Alicia Spinnet was hired a week later.

I even told her I'd be willing to volunteer, do paperwork or something. Getting a job is difficult when you're an ex-teen-Death-Eater from a well-known family of blood purist fanatics. I thought Granger, Champion Against Discrimination, might take pity. That was uncharacteristically optimistic of me. Obviously, I'm getting desperate for something to do.

Plan: Show Hermione Granger That Ex-Teen-Death-Eaters Are People Too, And Make Her Regret Her Hasty Dismissal Of Me. And go easy on the capital letters.

Okay. I had a little chat with Pansy. You might not think that would help, but Pansy had spoken to Padma Patil who'd spoken to Spinnet who (obviously) talks to Granger, and so I have highly reliable information on Granger's opinions of me.

Something along the lines of:

\- Prejudiced

\- Arrogant

\- Rude

\- Selfish

\- Sadistic

\- Cowardly

\- A sorry excuse for a human being with no feelings of decency or any capability of doing anything unless there's something in it for himself.

Perhaps looking at my previous behaviour, these accusations are not unreasonable. But they're not correct either.

It was rather unprofessional of her to rant about me to Spinnet, who she'd just hired after turning me down. Pansy says she thought my application was an attempt to make a mockery of her and the company. So quick to believe the worst of me – I'm hurt, I truly am.

Anyway, I need to make her see differently. I need… a plan of action.

Step One: Show I'm not prejudiced but in fact extremely tolerant. Really.

So, I need to associate with people I'd normally say were beneath me. And convince her that I think we're all equals. It's a shame I can't just throw money at a few charities, but father did that too and in the end it's rather unconvincing. Also, there isn't that much left to throw.

Step Two: Think of a Step Two.

Progress with Step One: I heard from Blaise of this werewolf aid scheme which is distributing Wolfsbane each month. I've offered my services, and though they're somewhat suspicious of my motives (as is everyone, it gets tiring), they're also short-staffed. Apparently even the normal wizarding population are less than generous towards werewolves, not just selfish prejudiced bigots like myself. So I start under strict supervision next week, and hopefully they'll eventually trust me enough for the brewing. I always liked Potions.

And yesterday, we ventured into muggle London.

All I can say is those tube train things could do with an undetectable extension charm. Malfoys like their personal space to be respected. I held it together, unlike my great-great-great uncle Apus who tended to crucio anyone unexpectedly within a metre of him.

Blaise has taken up photography and insisted on photographing me every five minutes. Apparently just taking a photo of the Thames isn't good enough; the photo is simply incomplete without me. I resigned myself to my fate. It wasn't so bad once we got into the pub.

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AN: Reviews are marvellous.


	2. Chapter 2

Hermione

I can't believe that arrogant arse! He insulted me all through school, he watched me tortured under the Cruciatus curse, he switched sides about a thousand times in that final battle at Hogwarts, and he wanders in here expecting me to employ him? Granger Advice Service is all about helping people, and we have a reputation of trustworthiness and fairness to uphold. We don't need self-centred, entitled people like him.

I must stop dwelling on Draco Malfoy and his insufferable, conceited, ferrety face.

Now, I need some more details on the Smiths' case…

I got caught up in work and was late to meet Ron. He wasn't best pleased; I believe his exact words were: "You need to stop thinking your time is more important than anyone else's."

Which isn't quite fair, since I make better use of my time than most people. But I have kept him waiting quite often lately.

Still, I had made us miss our reservation, so we ventured into muggle London to find a pub away from the prying eyes of the Wizarding public. Rita Skeeter finally registered as an Animagus, back amidst all the confusion after the defeat of Voldemort. I expect she worked out that if I reveal that she was unregistered for a long time, I could well be in trouble for concealing the crime myself. Just last week she ran an article:

* * *

 **When's the Wedding?**

Will Ron and Hermione ever tie the knot? Rita Skeeter reports.

Following the spectacular wedding of Harry Potter and Ginevra Weasley earlier this year, eyes have been on the pair's close friends and long-term couple, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger. Ronald is Ginevra's brother, and he and Miss Granger were at our Chosen One's side throughout much of the last war against You-Know-Who. The two reportedly got together sometime around the Final Battle at Hogwarts, just over five years ago.

Hermione, 24, and Ronald, 23, are older than their now-married friends, and have been together for a similar length of time, which begs the question, will they be the next to get hitched? And if not, then why not?

No engagement has been announced yet, nor have there been any indicators: no sneaky jewellery shop visits by Mr Weasley, for instance. We must wonder, perhaps this delay hints at trouble in paradise.

Miss Granger, always top of her class at Hogwarts, spends a great deal of her time at the office – a typical sign and sometimes cause of relationship strain. She runs her own legal agency, Granger Advice Services, better known as GAS. Ronald Weasley has recently left the ranks of the Aurors to run his brother's joke shop, Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. This is unlikely to be a career change that his high-flying girlfriend approves of.

Of course, they may simply be keeping an engagement under wraps, to avoid stealing the limelight from the Boy-Who-Lived and his new wife. If that is the case, this reporter thinks they have waited long enough.

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It's not especially vitriolic, but nonetheless very irritating in true Skeeter style. I'm not sure if Ron's read it; I hope it doesn't prompt him to do anything stupid. Such as proposing, just because people expect it. Oh goodness, that's just the sort of thing he might do. I think I'll talk to Harry and make sure he discourages Ron if he mentions anything about it.

We ended up having dinner not too far away, at the Shovel and Ship, and the last person I expected or wanted to see was there. Well, he was just leaving actually, supporting a rather inebriated Blaise Zabini. If he hadn't looked so startled when he saw me I'd swear he was up to something.

Wait, this is Malfoy. Of course he's up to something. Trying to work for me, visiting a muggle pub, that is all very suspicious behaviour. I'd better keep an eye on him, just in case.

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AN: Reviews encourage the author - whether constructive or complimentary.


	3. Chapter 3

Draco

Step One is going rather better than expected. We ran into Granger when leaving the pub the other day, quite by accident, so now she's seen me mixing with the Muggles. I don't think her jaw could have dropped any lower. I got out of there as quickly as possible though, Weasley was with her and he always turns an alarming shade of red when I'm around. Maybe he fancies me.

The full moon is tomorrow so my charitable endeavours have also begun. Werewolf Support are letting me help with the list of werewolves collecting Wolfsbane from their centre near Diagon Alley. For full efficacy, the potion should be taken every evening the week before the full moon. However, it needs to be kept on a low flame throughout that time so we give it out on all seven days.

My job is to tick the names off the list and to record any change of address. I suppose they didn't want me handling the potion itself, but they must be really short on staff to give me a role where the werewolves who come in can actually see me. I've kept to the corner, letting the other volunteers ask the questions and just recording the answers, but even so a few of them recognised me. One of the more frequent volunteers, Rolf, had to reassure them that I couldn't compromise the Wolfsbane or their anonymity in any way even if I wanted to. They're still coming back for their potions so I suppose he succeeded.

Once we close up I go through the list to find out if any werewolves haven't turned up, and a team goes to check on them. I've been amusing myself trying to work out an enchantment for the parchment so I don't have to do all this manually. Rolf saw me making some notes the other day, trying to work out how to do it. I was concerned that he would think it was some dastardly scheme to sabotage the list, but he didn't show any distrust of me - unlike a couple of the others. He thought something similar to the spells used to find books in libraries might work.

There's a few werewolves that take the potion home and keep it simmering for themselves, which strikes me as rather unsafe. What if they don't drink it? And what happens if a werewolf goes missing and our team can't find them at home?

When I mentioned this today however, my fellow volunteers were aghast. Apparently trying to do anything about it would infringe on the werewolves' civil liberties, though I'm yet to be convinced that is worth risking the safety of everyone else. James Perkins just sort of sputtered his outrage rather than giving any actual reasons. Patil (the Gryffindor one) has so far refused to speak to me unless absolutely necessary so I didn't get any insight from her.

Obviously I didn't press the point with the Werewolf Support workers – I want to stay helping them after all. But I mentioned it to Blaise, and he made a comparison to the Muggle-born Register, which of course was used for the Dark Lord's agenda and thus, _not a good thing_. He's been reading some Muggle history recently and says that they too have terrible precedents for singling out a group of people for suspicion. None of these cases involved people who turned into bloodthirsty beasts one night a month, which to me makes all the difference. On the other hand, there're those like my Aunt Bella who are bloodthirsty at all times of the month and definitely more dangerous than a werewolf on Wolfsbane.

I'm starting to understand why Werewolf Support made me sign all those magically binding contracts about not releasing the information on their werewolf list, among other things. It's not just that they didn't trust me; it must have been the truth when I was told that all the volunteers have to sign those things. I know a bit about magical law – such lessons were all part of being heir to the Malfoy fortune, for all the good they do me now – and whoever wrote up and enchanted the contracts did a very thorough job.


	4. Chapter 4

Hermione

Harry is coming over later to join Ron and me for pizza. Muggle takeaways were a revelation to Ron, especially those that deliver – though of course we can't get them direct to Grimmauld Place. Honestly we probably eat too much of them, since I just don't have much time for cooking. Ron tries, and though he was a disaster to begin with he can now make some decent meals. I think he felt guilty about leaving me to fend for us during the Horcrux hunt but now it's rather the other way around.

Before Harry gets here, I really want to pin down my thoughts about the Smith case. Mrs Smith says that Janus Yaxley is refusing to honour the marriage contract between his daughter and her son, Zacharias Smith. He's written from prison forbidding it. Though arranged marriages are seen as rather old-fashioned in the Wizarding World, they're not unheard of. Zacharias Smith was a slimy little toad at school but I'm starting to feel sorry for him, promised in marriage to a Voldemort supporter.

Thanks to the Muggle-born Registration Commission by Voldemort's puppet ministry, Yaxley discovered that Mrs Smith's mother is a Muggle-born. They didn't know because she's from Russia, where they tend to induct Muggle-borns into the magical world much earlier. The Yaxley family are of course _very_ pure-blood, so I imagine they recoiled at the thought of their precious daughter marrying someone of only three-quarters magical ancestry.

Mrs Smith is insistent that they are being cheated, and that either the marriage must go ahead or they will be entitled to restitution. The Yaxleys can certainly afford it even after the war but they are trying to get Mrs Smith to settle privately. Normally I try to get both sides of the story in this kind of matter, but they're refusing to speak to me – unsurprising given that blood prejudice is behind this whole issue.

At present it looks as though Mrs Smith will have to take them to court, especially as they won't meet her with a legal advisor present and she won't see them without one. I'm sure they'll fabricate some reason to legally call off the marriage. However as Janus Yaxley is already in Azkaban for being a Death-Eater, it may be possible to sway the Wizengamot in our favour. Or maybe the mere threat of court will make Yaxley reconsider. He might object to us dragging the name of his family publicly through the mud again.

In any case, I'm sure we'll find a solution. G.A.S. is going from strength to strength. Just today we helped create more protection for Muggles under wizarding law – it's made the paper.

* * *

Over dinner I asked Ron and Harry if they knew what Malfoy is doing these days. I'd almost grown accustomed to a Malfoy-free world, and then he resurfaced twice in as many weeks. The last I'd heard of him was when Harry testified at his trial. I remember he was given a relatively short Azkaban sentence to be followed by some sort of rehabilitation programme. His father however is likely to be in prison for decades, if not life – which is just as he deserves.

Ron says he ran into him at Gringotts a few months back. Apparently Malfoy was his usual self – an utter prat – and asked Ron if he fancied making a donation to the Malfoy fortune. Even now he's earning plenty, before as an Auror and now at the joke shop, Ron's still a bit touchy about money.

Harry vaguely remembered hearing something about Malfoy doing community service as part of his sentence. He was concentrating mostly on eating an unholy amount of pizza. Back at Hogwarts he would obsessively debate Malfoy's motives and movements for hours on end. Things really have changed since then.

Honestly, I'm no closer to figuring out what Malfoy's up to. Maybe he just asked about the G.A.S. job because he knew it would mess with my mind. That doesn't really explain his truly uncharacteristic behaviour in entering a Muggle pub though – he couldn't have known we would end up there and not at the restaurant we'd booked.

I _will_ solve this riddle. Malfoy has never been that complicated.

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AN: Thanks for reading this far! Reviews are always welcome.

Just a heads up: I'm about to start a new job and am in the process of sorting out somewhere to live, so new chapters might be less frequent over the next couple of months. However I've got a story outline and the next few chapters are already drafted, so I've no intention of abandoning the story!


	5. Chapter 5

Draco

I just had the most brilliant idea. I am a genius. Hermione Granger has nothing on me. 

_**I am going to get a Muggle job.**_

Just think about it:

\- The boss won't refuse to hire me on the grounds of my past because they won't know about it.

\- I'll make some money which would really be rather useful right now – I doubt Blaise wants a non-paying house-guest forever and I really don't want to return to the Manor.

\- I can throw it in the face of anyone who calls me prejudiced. How many wizards, even Muggle-born ones, actually go and work in the Muggle world?

I wonder what sorts of jobs they have. I'd like a Ministry job really, but I guess it would have to be entry level. Or maybe running a company? Blaise has been trying out some Muggle stuff, like those history classes. I'll ask him what he thinks.

* * *

Blaise is a dream-ruiner. He laughed for long enough that I stopped feeling insulted and wondered if he was under some horrific curse. He was helpful though I suppose. Pointed out that:

\- I have no Muggle qualifications.

\- I can't overcome this issue using Confundus or something similar, because that would be bad for my image and also illegal since Granger and the Ministry have tightened legislation on using magic on Muggles. Front page news yesterday when the bill was passed.

\- I have next to no knowledge of how to function in the Muggle world. 

However, there must be some jobs I could do. Like working in a shop, or a restaurant. Blaise did promise to subtly pump his Muggle acquaintances for information on such things. He's also lent me some books on Muggles, including The Pureblood Wizard's Guide to the Muggle World. From the introduction it sounds as if it was written for absolute imbeciles, but I shall persist. Apparently it's particularly important that I read the stuff about fones and kompewters, which just sound like a type of cauldron to me.

I think this calls for some additions to my master plan:

Step One: Show I'm not prejudiced but in fact extremely tolerant. – I've already started this one.

Step Two: Learn more about the Muggle world.

Step Three: Get a Muggle job.

Sometimes, the best plan is a simple one. And Malfoys always execute plans with style - even those conceived by an insane Dark Lord. This will be no different.

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AN: Reviews are better than pizza.


	6. Chapter 6

Hermione

I got home from work today, and Ron said we needed to talk.

He wants to break it off.

He says we're growing apart, and he thinks that if we stay together much longer we won't stay friends.

He says that I use the importance of my work as an excuse for my disregard of other people. That I don't seem to value him or our relationship. That maybe he is struggling with being the less successful one, as he always has, but that I have not made it easier for him.

I don't know whether he's right. My job is based around helping other people, sometimes people who really need us – should I really be prioritising my friends over them?

I should be sad but I'm more angry than sad. I don't know if I'm angry at him or myself or both of us. We were _meant to be_ , we survived Voldemort together, how could we fail now?

But I'm oddly just a little bit relieved as well. I love him, I'm sure I love him, but at some point I stopped seeing us spending the rest of our lives together. Maybe he did too.


End file.
